


Out of The Ash I Rise

by ghostlygalaxies



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Character Study, Other, based off of 1x13 & news about cheryl being meaner next season, cheryl blossom - Freeform, mentions of her suicide attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-07 00:11:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11611863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostlygalaxies/pseuds/ghostlygalaxies
Summary: A character study of Cheryl after the finale and how she will be next season.-The title, as well as the quotes, are from the poem Lady Lazarus by Sylvia Plath.





	Out of The Ash I Rise

_“Dying / Is an art, like everything else. / I do it exceptionally well.”_

Ice. Her icy exterior did not melt, it was slowly and painfully chipped and cracked away at.

She felt it was fitting, drowning in icy water. The water her brother had been found in. Icy like her. Like the cold, sharp pain she felt from constant neglect and frightening memories.

Even now, Cheryl feels trapped below ice, freezing and drowning. But Archie is not there, frantically punching away at it. In fact, the people who had saved her are now not paying much attention to her at all, lost in their own lives.

It was ironic, really, the fire she lit. Despite all of the ice that surrounds her, Cheryl burned down her home. Some of her worst, iciest memories had occurred in that house.

So much ice. And then fire. But the ice still feels like it’s above her head, all of the time. Suffocating her. The ice won’t go away.

 _All of the ice is getting to me,_ Cheryl decides, _that’s why all I feel is numb._

The Ice Queen who is broken. The Ice Queen who sits on an throne of ashes, burnt away by her own hands. The Ice Queen who almost drowned.

_“I do it so it feels like hell. / I do it so it feels real. / I guess you could say I’ve a call.”_

Who will she be now that the restraints of her home were burnt away, the prison bars that held her crumbled at her feet? Now that she revealed her vulnerability, who will Cheryl be? Can she still be cold? Can she spit icicles from her lips, as she used to?

Cheryl was on a path of destruction. But, before that, she was on a path of renewal. A fork in the road.

That thrill she felt as her home turned to ashes still lingers in her mind, taunting her. _Burn it all_ , a voice whispers, _burn it all_. And suddenly she’s flooded with memories of all who had harmed her and all she can think of is setting the world aflame.

Wouldn’t it be too cliché for the Ice Queen to give up the throne? Cheryl had spent her entire life losing—people, affection, attention, love—so maybe it’s time she won.

Fire and Ice at the same time. She’s always been a bit of an anomaly, after all. Cheryl will be as cold as frostbite, yet as scorching and unforgiving as a forest fire.

_“Ash, ash— / You poke and stir. / Flesh, bone, there is nothing there—”_

All she has lost will not break her. Jason is gone. Her father is gone. Her home is gone. Yet, there is ice surrounding her and fire pumping through her veins. Though her throne is made of ash, she will rise from the ruins like a phoenix.

The fork in the road. On the right, a path of redemption, of naïvety and forgiveness and warmth, yet, somehow, worthlessness. To the left, a second path of destruction, of ice and fire and self-love and success. 

Grinning, Cheryl turns left, snow falling around her and the world burning under her feet.

_“Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair / And I eat men like air.”_


End file.
